


Eden

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Hellboy (movie-verse)
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Medical Trauma, Mentions of Holocaust, Mutilation, Self-Harm, Yuletide, Yuletide 2009
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-20
Updated: 2009-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-04 16:31:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kroenen thinks about his past and his future as he waits for his Master's return.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eden

**Author's Note:**

  * For [noisyrats](https://archiveofourown.org/users/noisyrats/gifts).



Karl Ruprecht Kroenen had gone by many titles throughout his long life; Famous Boy Soprano, Doctor, Antihippocratic, Thule Scholar, Leader, Obersturmbannfuhrer, Assassin, Madman, Genius, War Criminal, and Disciple.

Were he born in today's society, he would probably have a whole list of diagnoses to add to his labels, like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Germophobia, Masochism, Body Mutilation, Body Dysmorphic Disorder/Body Integrity Identity Disorder, Hyperthyroidism, and a few more, he's sure.

But he wasn't born in this future time; he was born in an era when he could fulfill his desires and still be called a hero, a visionary. He was found by Rasputin, and proved his worth to his Master in countless ways. And Kroenen would be rewarded appropriately when their Eden was released upon the Earth.

Kroenen was familiar with the darkness he currently floated in; it was the same place he went after the attack in Scotland, while he waited for Ilsa to find him and use her gifted powers to revive him. It was the place beyond pain, beyond pleasure, the only place where his mind could be at peace.

When he was a child, he had been paraded around Europe, constantly swamped by the pressures of his parents to be the best performer. He discovered, quite by accident, that if he could injure himself enough, he would bypass pain, slip though pleasure, and eventually arrive in this blissful nowhere.

It started with cuts and whippings, with pokes from his mother's sewing needle and burns. Eventually he realized that he could stitch his wounds shut, prolonging the experience. His parents took this as a sign of his surgical aptitude, and once he was freed from the pressure of being a world famous singer, he was apprenticed to a surgeon.

But Kroenen did not want to perform surgery on others; only on himself. He learned all he could, and he studied the effects and styles of as many weapons as he could. He started by making small cuts on his own toes and feet and sewing them back up, but eventually those actions were not enough to transport him to the place of peace. He started carving up his skin, and once he accidentally cut off one of his own toes.

It took him three days to return from that high.

When he discovered Rasputin, or, rather, when Rasputin discovered him, Kroenen was desperately searching for a way to hide his obsessions from the world. His Master gave him the opportunity, guiding him into positions of such power that no one would ever question his eccentricities, and where he was practically _given_ prisoners upon which he could perform his experiments.

Between his experiments for the Antihypocratics and his work while assigned to Auschwitz, he learned much about the functioning of the human body, and exactly how much damage he could do to himself in his quest for pleasure and peace. Of course, young Ilsa was always ready to assist, as Rasputin rarely let her dominate him. But Kroenen could see in her eyes, how much she needed that power over others, how much she needed to cause pain, just as he needed to feel it.

They spent many long years together, waiting for the right spatial anomaly to occur so that they might resurrect Rasputin. Never were they lovers in the traditional sense, but then very little about them was traditional. But the devotion they shared for their Master, as well as the mutual filling of their desires, kept them occupied together.

The night that Rasputin disappeared through the portal, Kroenen escaped from the insurgent forces and dragged his body into one of Rasputin's hidden cells. Weeks later he was pulled back into consciousness, having spent the longest time ever in that otherworldly calm he sought.

Thanks to the gifts of his Master, Kroenen could not die, but he would need to repair the damage to his body as much as possible, or he would be reduced to a living lump. Ilsa helped him back to his lab and they spent months creating a new hand and spine for him. It was the realized application of all of his research and theory; the idea that one could merge robotics and living tissue, and with the proper connections of nerves and wires, make them interface.

Kroenen had never intended to use himself as the ultimate test subject, but perhaps given his various proclivities, it was inevitable. Ilsa helped as needed, but mostly she used Rasputin's gift of knowledge to seek out the location and time that they could use to bring him back.

As Kroenen perfected his mechanical adaptations, he also perfected his body, becoming so much more than the human man he had once been. He was now a hybrid of organic and inorganic, with spiritual and supernatural elements gained from his own soul and the magic of his Master. His blood was replaced with a dust composed of the most unholy elements of the cosmos, and his weakened heart was improved with another mechanical advancement.

By the time they were able to resurrect Rasputin, Kroenen had become a perfect meld of the best and worst elements of the universe.

He was the ultimate being: unable to die, but able to kill (or not) in hundreds of ways, able to transcend into a place of absolute serenity beyond mortal comprehension. Kroenen was as perfect a being as a mortal man could become, and as soon as his Master was ready, they would create an Eden to live in. They had one more job to do, one that only Kroenen could complete, due to his unique nature, and he basked in his Master's approval as surely as he basked in the pain of the task.

As soon as his Master gave the word, Kroenen would return from the tranquil darkness, and he would complete the next step on their road to Eden. He would kill the mortal who tied Anung Un Rama to the human realm, and allow his Master to awake the true nature of the Scarlet Beast.

"Arise, my child, and reassemble yourself." Rasputin's spirit, able to enter the building through Kroenen's presence, left its host and caused an other-worldly wind to stir the sheet over them. Kroenen felt the movement as he retreated from the other plane and resumed control of his body.

Ignoring the absence of his clothes, as well as the various pieces of himself that the Doctor had removed, Kroenen rose, worshiping the power of his Master that allowed him to obey even beyond normal human limits. Kroenen would reassemble his perfect body, and then he would complete the next step on their path to Eden.

Perhaps once Ilsa and Rasputin had their hellish dream world, he would be allowed to permanently retreat into his own blissful Eden.


End file.
